A sense of despair that the State may be divided appears to have gripped Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy when he gave his address on the occasion of State Formation Day here Friday.
“People of the State are worried and confused over whether they would be able to celebrate AP Formation Day in future,” he said. Just a day before, he had paid tributes to former prime minister Indira Gandhi and hoped the State would remain united as she had desired. But that aggression was missing at the State Formation Day celebrations at the NTR Stadium. In a brief six-minute speech, he said, “I pray to Telugu Talli that we should be able to celebrate State Formation Day every year.” He hoisted the National Flag but unlike in the past, the celebrations were muted. And, Kiran Reddy himself admitted, “As Telangana state formation process is on, people consider this year State’s Formation Day will be the last.”
Kiran Reddy sought to relate everything to the unity of Telugus and wrapped up his speech with a list of welfare schemes launched by his government.
Interestingly, he refrained from attacking the Congress leadership.
He presented medals and after posing for the group picture, left the stadium 15 minutes before schedule. All the Telangana ministers, except D Nagender, boycotted the function. A few Seemandhra ministers like Ganta Srinivasa Rao and TG Venkatesh attended.